THIS WEEKEND Comedy
and adventure collided at the North American box office and delivered a
number one opening for Fool's Gold
starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. Martin Lawrence's new comedy
Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins enjoyed
a solid second place finish, but the standup concert film Vince
Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour bombed in its opening finishing
well outside the Top 20.

Uncovering the most treasure, Fool's Gold
premiered in the top spot over the weekend with $21.6M from 3,125 theaters
for a strong $6,909 average, according to final
studio figures. The debut for the Warner Bros. release was below the $23.8M
opening that the two actors generated for their romantic comedy How
To Lose A Guy in 10 Days which launched five years ago this
weekend. That figure would be roughly $27M at today's ticket prices.

The $70M-budgeted Gold,
which features the stars as an estranged couple reuniting to hunt for sunken
treasure, was panned by critics and received some of the worst reviews
of any film released in this new year. Andy Tennant (Hitch,
Sweet Home Alabama) directed. In the
half-decade since 10 Days came out,
Hudson has been absent from the box office throne while McConaughey headlined
two number one openers - 2005's adventure Sahara
and 2006's romantic comedy Failure to Launch.

Debuting in second place with a nearly identical performance on a per-theater
basis was the Martin Lawrence-led comedy Welcome
Home Roscoe Jenkins with $16.2M from 2,387 locations for a solid
$6,790 average. The Universal release played in 738 fewer theaters than
Fool's Gold. Directed by Malcolm D.
Lee (The Best Man, Undercover
Brother), the PG-13 film tells of a famous talk show host who
returns to his childhood home for the 50th anniversary of his parents and
reconnects with family and friends. Cedric the Entertainer, James Earl
Jones, Michael Clarke Duncan, Mike Epps, and Mo'Nique co-star.

Produced for $35M, Roscoe Jenkins
generated an opening similar to last month's First
Sunday which was another comedy led by an African American cast.
That pic which starred Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan bowed to $17.7M from 2,213
theaters and is headed for a finish of just under $40M. According to Fox
research, Roscoe's audience was 52%
female and 52% over the age of 30.

Despite its A grade from CinemaScore, Disney's Hannah
Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds plunged 67% in
its second weekend to $10.3M ranking third for the frame. The G-rated concert
film played in only 687 theaters and still averaged a sizzling $14,987
per location and boosted its ten-day cume to a fantastic $53.2M. Hannah
Montana was originally promoted as a one-week-only event and
racked up record pre-sales over the past two months so it was expected
to absorb most of the demand in the first seven days. The studio announced
last Sunday that it would extend the run. With a reported budget of $7M,
the 3D tween sensation could climb to an astounding $70M. Most theaters
are charging an extra-high $15 per ticket.

Jessica Alba's horror pic The Eye
held up reasonably well in its second weekend falling 48% to $6.5M. The
$22M Lionsgate title has grossed $21.4M in ten days and should see itself
ending up in the neighborhood of $35M.

More female starpower followed as a pair of funny ladies from Fox ranked
fifth and sixth. Oscar contender Juno
slipped only 20% to $5.6M and boosted its cume to an amazing $117.5M. The
wise-cracking pregnant teen is the eldest stateswoman in the top ten having
just entered her tenth weekend. Eight of those frames were spent in the
top ten. Katherine Heigl's 27 Dresses
dropped only 37% to $5.4M and pushed its sum to $65.1M.

Hot on the trail of those young ladies were a bunch of old geezers.
70-year-old superstars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman watched their
hit film The Bucket List collect $5.3M,
off just 22%, for a cume of $75M for Warner Bros. Not far behind was 61-year-old
action star Sylvester Stallone with Rambo
which fell 37% to $4.5M giving Lionsgate a tally of $36.9M.

Fox's spoof comedy Meet the Spartans
was off by 44% to $4.1M and reached a total of $34M. The Daniel Day-Lewis
oil saga There Will Be Blood expanded
and saw its weekend milkshake dip by just 15%. Paramount Vantage has taken
in $26.7M to date with much more expected in the weeks ahead as moviegoers
catch up on high profile Academy Award contenders.

Opening miserably outside of the top ten was the standup comedy doc
Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Tour
which debuted to $464,170 from 962 locations for an embarrassingly low
$483 average. Scoring an opening weekend average of just three digits is
never a good thing. The R-rated Picturehouse release follows the comic
actor and his group of standup comedians on their tour across several states.

Grossing a similar amount of money from just a tiny fraction of the
theaters was the Colin Farrell hitman drama In
Bruges which bowed in just 28 locations to $457,227 for a solid
$16,330 average. Focus will expand the R-rated film hoping to capitalize
on the publicity it generated from its opening night slot at Sundance.
Reviews were mostly encouraging.

A pair of studio flicks fell from the top ten this weekend. Sony's gory
crime thriller Untraceable dipped 32%
to $3.5M in its third session and raised its total to $24.3M. Budgeted
at over $30M, the Diane Lane vehicle should finish up with a decent $30-35M.
The $25M camcorder-style thriller Cloverfield
dropped 43% in its fourth frame to $2.8M for Paramount. With $76M banked
to date, the disaster film looks to reach $80-83M by the end of its domestic
run giving the studio a nice moneymaker. Cloverfield
remains the top-grossing new release of 2008.

All five Oscar nominees for Best Picture enjoyed strong holds with declines
of 29% for Atonement, 20% for Juno,
15% for There Will Be Blood, and 14%
for Michael Clayton. Frontrunner No
Country For Old Men was the only one to not drop, inching up
1%. All films are spending aggressively on advertising to take advantage
of their nods in the marketplace.

The top ten films grossed $83.5M which was off 4% from last year when
Norbit opened at number one with $34.2M;
and down 15% from 2006 when The Pink Panther debuted
in the top spot with $20.2M.

Compared to projections, Fool's Gold
opened very close to my $23M forecast while Welcome
Home Roscoe Jenkins debuted a couple of notched below my $20M
prediction. Vince Vaughn came in below
my $3M projection.

Check the NEW updated Opening Weekends
page with the top debuts for films released over the last twenty years.
For a NEW review of Fool's Gold and
NEW DVD reviews of The Assassination of Jesse
James, The Brave One, and
Gone Baby Gone visit The
Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday
for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when The
Spiderwick Chronicles, Jumper,
Step Up 2 The Streets, and Definitely,
Maybe all open.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.